Our Defense Against the Devil (Continued)
Soldiers of Christ arise,
And put your armour on,
Strong in the strength which God supplies
Through His eternal Son;
Strong in the Lord of Hosts,
And in His mighty power,
Who in the strength of Jesus trusts,
Is more than conqueror.
Stand then in His great might,
With all His strength endued;
But take, to arm you for the fight,
The panoply of God;
That having all things done,
And all your conflicts past,
Ye may overcome through Christ alone,
And stand entire at last.
-Charles Wesley
HOW MANY PRAYERS have missed the mark and been in vain because not mixed with wary vigilance. How many sad failures in Christian life because watchfulness failed. The devil has no readier prey than a sleepy Christian. Bunyan's Christian lost his roll when he fell asleep. Many Christians, not in allegory, but in fact, have lost their souls by the same failure. Eternal vigilance is the price of political liberty. No less a price must be paid for our spiritual safety. The foolish virgins missed heaven because they failed in this grace.
Watchfulness would have brought them with the Bridegroom into the high joys of heaven's festal hour.
In the sixth chapter of Ephesians, we have the whole warfare with the devil and his legions, and the sources of defense and victory:
“Finally, my brethren, be strong hi the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And for me that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel. For which I am an ambassador in bonds; that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak."
In this passage we have a view of the strenuous conflict and of the battle-field on which the issues of eternity are tossed.
The Christian's battle is with the devil and his wiles or methods. His struggle is arranged with order, wisdom and skill. Principalities and powers are under his management and subject to his orders, they, the first and the highest, the first in creation and the highest in dignity. They are his lieutenants, his prime ministers, his captain generals, to carry out his orders and represent him fully. They are the world rulers, world-wide, world-powerful. They master and control all the evil forces of the world. The devil and his higher confederates are world-rulers. Their might is coextensive with the world. A mighty sway is theirs, a fearful rule for evil, against the good and against man. Their subordinates, the rank and file, are innumerable and invincible, save to a God-equipped man. What a vast and powerful array of enemies are there, aggressive, malignant and cruel. They are high or in heavenly places, the very place where Christ's power is located. This power is over us, above us and around us. They are too mighty for us. Against this invisible, innumerable, all-powerful and vast array, we wrestle. A close conflict is wrestling. An intense and arduous conflict it is, strenuous, which tests all strength and strains every fiber. It is hand to hand, foot to foot, close contact, a grappling. It is not with men, though men may give us much opposition in our Christian course. But our chief trouble, our main trouble, our great war, is not with man but with all the mighty evil forces of the devil. A life and death struggle it is, a war for heaven and hell, for time and eternity.
The Christian must be a soldier by birth, by fortune, by trade. The best elements of a divine soldiership must be his, “not entangled with the affairs of this life." Princely in the elements and measure of self-denial, courage and endurance, are the engraved characteristics of this soldierhood. Strength is the fruit of these high qualities. But strength far beyond his own strength. “Strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." For the preparation for this war the Christian soldier must go out of himself. The strength of God, the very strength of God's almightiness, must be his. The ability to stand, to fight, to conquer and to drive the foe from the field, will be found in God's armour. God's strength is imparted through God's armour. No power short of God can enable us to meet the devil. No partial equipment will suffice. We are charged twice to make it doubly sure to take the whole armour. We take God by taking His armour. We have God by having put the armour on us. Make His armour our own. We put on God by putting on His armour. Not outside but inside, not objective but subjective, not imputed only, but inwrought. Christ made the armour, the Holy Spirit fits and puts it on us, and makes it ours. We have to fight through to the end and drive the foe and hold the battle-field, and having done all, to stand. First withstand, and then stand. We gain and hold, and then advance. Stand ready for the fight, stand in the fight.
Strong and valorous for the truth, in the inward parts; no sham soldier, no sham fighting. All is real and true. Being truthful, a girded soldier, strong and tucked up and narrowed to the intensest and deepest form of truth, his girdle the truth, for truth is the band, the ornament of a jewelled girdle, a diamond set in gold. We must conquer the devil by truth as the strength and support of our lives. We know the truth and have the truth, for we have Christ who is the truth.
"The breastplate of righteousness." Heart righteousness makes head righteousness and life righteousness. We cannot fight without heart righteousness. The "breastplate of righteousness" protects the heart and makes us feel right. The old heart cannot be made right by the most skillful artificer nor by the most correct doing. No tinkering on the old heart can make it right. It is as hard as a stone and crooked as the Jordan, and no melting can make it soft and no human effort can make it straight. A new heart soft as flesh and washed whiter than snow in the blood of Christ, a copy and a piece of Christ's heart, “perfect, and right, and pure, and good "-this is what is needed. The feet must be shod with a preparation which is always ready to go, to do and to suffer. Slow movements, a dilatory doing of God's will, being off guard, a general unreadiness for life or death, for earth or heaven, for sacrifice or service, for doing or for suffering, cuts the nerves of Christian valour and lays us open to surprises and crushing defeats. Always ready is the soldier attitude of safety, and ready to move presages victory. Flying columns are Satan's most dreaded foes. Wakeful vigilance is assured victory against the devil.
The “shield of faith" is the all-important and the all-covering article of armour. The devil lets fly his fiery, poisoned darts, but faith catches them as they are directed to head or heart, and arrests and quenches them. Dost thou believe all victories are possible to the soldier, valiant and strong in faith? No battle was ever planned by hell's most gifted strategist which can conquer faith. All its inflamed and terrible darts fall harmless as they strike against the shield of faith. “These all died in faith," Faith made their death the crowning point. Faith brought to their dying hour the spoils of their victories.
“The helmet" protects the head. Bear in mind that headsalvation and heart-salvation, real and full, are stronger than brass to protect the head. A heart fully saved holds the head to truth and righteousness, like the anchor holds the ship in stormiest seas. “The hope of salvation," says Paul in Thessalonians, is the helmet. The Christian soldier must put heaven strongly in his head and heart. He must see heaven, feel heaven and keep heaven in the eye and in the heart all the time. He will stand with unsteady step if heaven be far off. He will fight feebly if heaven be seen dimly. The full sight of heaven will give strength to his loins, ardour to his faith, glory to his future and victory to the present. The head will never be pierced while hope is its helmet. Nurture hope, strengthen hope and brighten hope, for we are “saved by hope." We must “abound in hope" by the power of the Holy Spirit.
“The sword," the aggressive and powerful weapon, is the Word of God. The Spirit wields it in death to all our foes. The Word of God is our battle-field and victorious weapon. On it we stand and fight. With it we deal rout and ruin to every foe. The Christian soldier is " not to live by bread alone but by every word of God." We cannot make too much of the Word of God. Christ foiled Satan with it. If we be valiant, true and invincible, we also must have the Word of God dwelling in us richly. The shield of our faith, and the shape and form of that shield, is the basis of our prayers, the granite and essence of our girded truth. Head and hands and heart must be filled, impregnated and surcharged with God's Word; by it we live and by it we grow. It is our battle call, and the sign by which we conquer. A glittering royal blade it is in all the assaults of Satan. "It is written," goes like steel to the heart of Satan. As a weapon of defense and offense, God has magnified His Word above all His name. Thrice armed against all Satan's wiles and his devices, are those who are filled with God's Word. It is " quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit," and Satan feels it penetrating his joints and marrow, dissolving into weakness all his strength and making poor and foolish all his wisest plans.
The soldiers in the warfare against the devil must understand how to wear the armour of all prayer. “All prayer" in all kinds, and at all seasons, in the intensest form, with deepest sense of personal need of God, is the demand. Prayer must deepen and narrow and intensify into supplications, helped into this mighty praying, clothed with this resistless power of prayer by the Holy Spirit. This intense conflict with the devil requires sleepless vigilance, midnight vigils, a wakefulness which cannot be surprised, a perseverance which knows neither halting, fainting, nor depression, which knows by clearest spiritual intelligence what it needs, and what the illimitable provisions are to supply all those needs, and the imperative necessity of pressing the prayer till the need is supplied and the succour is secured. This praying holds itself in loving sympathy with the entire family of God, making their conflicts, perils and needs its own. It is in line of battle with the whole familyhood of God, taking in their foes, their safety and their perils. “Supplication for all saints" gives victory to every saint. The line of battle is one. Defeat or victory must come to all. It is the soldier fully equipped in God's armour, who is a veteran against the devil and invincible to all of his attacks.
It is not an easy thing to pray. Back of the praying there must lie the conditions of prayer. These conditions are possible, but they are not to be seized on in a moment by the prayerless. Present they always may be to the faithful and holy, but cannot exist in nor be met by a frivolous, negligent and laggard spirit. Prayer does not stand alone. It is not an isolated performance. Prayer stands in closest connection with all the duties of an ardent piety. It is the issuance of a character which is made up of the elements of a vigorous and commanding faith. Prayer honours God, acknowledges His being, exalts His power, adores His providence and secures His aid. A sneering half-rationalism cries out against devotion, and charges that it does nothing but pray. But to pray well, is to do all things well. If it be true that devotion does nothing but pray, then it does nothing at all. To do nothing but pray fails to do the praying, for the antecedent, coincident and subsequent conditions of prayer are but the sum of all the energized forces of a practical working piety.
Prayer puts God in the matter with commanding force. "Ask of me things to come concerning my sons," says God, "and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me." We are charged in God's Word, "always to pray," "in everything by prayer," "continuing instant in prayer," to "pray everywhere," "praying always." The promise is as illimitable as the command is comprehensive. "All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing ye shall receive." "Whatsoever ye shall ask;" “if ye shall ask anything;" "Ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you." "Whatsoever ye ask the Father he will give it you." If there is anything not involved in "All things whatsoever," or not found in the phrase, “Ask anything," then these things may be left: out of prayer. Language could not cover a wider range, nor involve more fully all minutia. These statements are but samples of the all comprehending power of prayer